Saturday, October 27, 2007

Nicky's Nana came to visit this weekend and she brought a new digital video recorder. So I chased Nicky around a bit with it and took a few movies! It's so much easier to take a movie of him than it is to take a picture. He just doesn't stay still very often and with digital cameras there always seems to be a delay from the time you hit the button to the time it takes the picture. And with him zipping around you end up with something like this:

But I did catch a few nice ones with Nana's new camera outside and even uploaded a video or two for you! I'll try to get a few more up soon. It takes forever for these to upload!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Well it's been over a week since my surgery. I finally started feeling a little better on Tuesday of this week. By "better" I mean able to go longer than two minutes without cringing and screaming "my butt!" But I did start to wean off the major pain meds Tuesday and today, mostly only taking Tylenol, although Tuesday night I succumbed and finally took a Toradol. My impetus for trying was that I only had two Toradol left and maybe 3 Percocet. I'm all out of the Lortab. Good stuff though huh? Yeah? Well I was on all that and STILL in excruciating pain for over a week. Nice surgery. Why did I have this again??

Anyway, still hurting, but only taking Tylenol really, oh and living in mortal fear of the bathroom, and now have had to take off the one week I'd planned and so far 3 days of another week. I really don't think I'll make it back to work before next Monday, which means I'll have taken my whole two weeks of leave. And that means our vacation to North Georgia we'd planned to take in early November isn't happening. Of course right now the idea of sitting in a car for 7 hours is laughable anyway, but hopefully by then I'd be able to do it. But it's a moot point now. Aw well. The one time I'd actually planned to take an actual week of vacation and I end up spending it at home miserable. Grrr! Maybe I'll be able to acrue a few days of vacation by Christmas and we can go up just for a long weekend or something. We'll have to see.

That's enough about me and my Heinous Heiny. Now for something about someone much cuter and more cheerful...

Oops, more like this...

LOL That picture just tickles me! We were over at Tom's Dad's place the weekend before my surgery and Nicky was having a ball playing with some of JM's mom's old jewelry. At one point I had him with clip on earrings wearing two necklaces. Tom said he looked like a pirate. I thought he looked rather beautiful. JM grabbed her camera to snap some shots of him. While I was changing him into something cooler to wear. Here's another...

He's just too cute!

Anyway, he's not tried the climb-out-of-the-crib trick any more, so let's hope he refrains until I can buy him a toddler bed. I hope to go out mid-November to buy one. We thought about making one to match his antique furniture, but then we just laughed and laughed and decided we needed him to actually be able to sleep in his toddler bed before he starts school. So I'll pick one out somewhere (cheap of course) and we'll pick it up and hope it's not recalled. Sigh. What is up with all these crazy recalls? Did someone miss the memo? LEAD PAINT = BAD.

Let's see, other Nicky related news... Did I tell you he now has two upper molars to match the lower ones? That means he's got 6 teeth on top and 4 on the bottom. Hey, that's 10 teeth! We're halfway there. And then of course he'll start losing them and growing them all over again.

We have lots of new words now, he knows where his ears, nose and belly button are and can say ear and nose. I'm not sure if he knows his eyes, cheeks and mouth yet, but we're working on it. His Grandmomma taught him to say "I don't know" during my surgery day which was fun. He just picked up a nicely sarcastic "so?" from me today. He's been calling all dogs Bobo (Benjamin's nickname) but now he can say Abbey and Sampson too. He says Night-Night when he's tired and wants to go to sleep. He says Cow and knows that a cow says "Moo." (That was accomplished at the craft store where he picked out a toy cow and we went through the store saying Mooo Mooo! Ahh, good times.)

I'm sure there's more, but I'm getting too sore sitting on one hip trying to type so I'll leave it at that. Point is, he's learning new words everyday, and while they're not crystal clear or anything he's obviously starting to use and understand language. So yay! (And of course it's all because we moved the house around and don't let him watch any tv anymore. Right?)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I came through the surgery just fine. But I am in some major pain. OW! I cussed up a storm the whole way home while lying in the back of the van and realized my curse word vocabulary is significantly lacking.

My mom was able to come to watch Nicky while we were at the hospital, and they had a great time. I am so grateful she could do that. It was a 5 hour drive for her to get here and she has an all day work thing to do Wednesday, but she came on Sunday and left this morning. If we'd had to take Nicky with us it would have been a nightmare!

They had called us at about 11am and said they thought they could fit me in earlier than 3:30 so instead of coming in at 2 they asked me to come at 1pm. So we get there just before 1pm. I go back at about 1:30ish to get an IV and prepped. And then Tom comes back in around 2ish to sit with me. That's when we find out that they're backed up because the surgeon before mine arrived late for his surgery and now my surgeon is just getting started on his FIRST patient of the day. I'm the LAST one (third of three) so mine didn't start till after 4pm. It would have been horrible to have Nicky there all that time! But I asked the nurse if I could use my hands while waiting (my IV was in my left hand). She said "sure, to do what?" I said "knitting." She was amazed LOL! She said as long as the IV was still dripping it would be fine, but she'd never had anyone knit while waiting for an operation. LOL!

So Tom and I knitted while we waited for about an hour or so, and then I napped for another hour while Tom read. Tom's working on a beautiful Alpaca wool scarf for his first project and I think it's going to be gorgeous! I'm working on my third dishcloth. They're so fun to knit! I did my first one for the dishcloth throw that our yarn group made to raise money for charity (and I won it in the raffle!) and I love the feeling of the 100% cotton yarn so much! So I bought more and have made another pretty yellow dishcloth to actually use to wash dishes and now I'm working on another in purple and green. I have another pattern to make a kitchen towel (the kind with a button to hang on the fridge or oven) in a pretty light blue too.

It's so nice to work in a yarn that feels good. I don't know that I'll work with a cheap acrylic yarn again. I still have several rolls that just feel icky to me. I know wool is supposed to be great, and Tom's alpaca wool feels very soft, but I just really am loving the cotton right now. And for Florida I think it's great. I made Nicky's hat and snake scarf in a 100% cotton and then a kerchief for myself too. Très Chic no?

Anyway, I've been sitting way too long now, even if it is on a pillow and I am HURTING. So I better get off my delicate derrière. Plus I hear Nicky stirring from his nap. By the way, yesterday before I went in for surgery my mom and I were sitting in the living room during Nicky's first (and only) attempt to nap in the morning, when I heard a "thump-WHAAAAA!" I threw my knitting across the room and ran for Nicky's room where I found him lying on his back on the floor. This was his first attempt to climb out of the crib and apparently it didn't go so well. I see a toddler bed in the very near future. I was hoping to wait for Christmas, but looks like we'll get one much sooner than that. He hasn't tried it again yet, but we're a little nervous about it. (Hopefully Nicky is too!)

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Nicky was so good yesterday! Yesterday really was a rough day for all of us, but he held up so well and we're so proud of him!

First we had his 18 month pediatric visit at 9:15am. That means we left the house around 8:30am, which was too early for breakfast according to Nicky. So I packed up some halved grapes, "cookies" which are actually fruit cereal bars, and two pieces of cheese toast for him to have later and we left.

Got to his doctor right on time and he had fun playing in the office for a little while till it was his turn. Apparently having an appointment early in the morning is the way to go because we hardly had to wait at all. His pediatrician said he's doing perfectly. He's right around the 50th percentile on all measurements, which even though he had been in the 90th and then around the 70th she said he was fine.

She also avoided calling me a worry wart, but said his speech is just fine. She said as long as his receptive speech (understanding what we say) is developing not to worry. I'll probably still worry some, but I'll refrain from hair-pulling till he turns two. Well mostly. She did say to keep him away from TV till age 2 and to not even have it on in the background, but that music is ok. So I do feel good about how we've moved the house around. (Of course today is nail cutting day, so he will get to sit in my lap and watch a dvd while I'm snipping away. It keeps him still and that's just too useful to pass up when it comes to nail clipping.)

He did get three shots though. Polio, Flu shot, blablablasomethingsomething. All I know is he's done with shots (other than a yearly flu) until he's FIVE! That seems so far away!

So anyway, we finished that appointment right around 10am. I know! Record time! And so here we are, in the building where my doc appointment is at 11:00. An hour early. Joy. So we head to the cafeteria (yep, it's a hospital so it's got one) and feed Nicky grapes, cheese toast, and a chocolate and pink M&M cookie that Tom bought from a fight Breast Cancer display. Breakfast of champions there. The cafeteria was closed between breakfast and lunch so no milk, but we had water for him.

About 10:20 (love how he eats fast when we have a whole hour to kill) we head upstairs to my doctor. Tom watched Nicky play in the little waiting room toy area while I knit. (I actually finished his hat and scarf yesterday!) When Tom tired of running around after him we traded off. My doctor, who actually turned out to be a nurse, finally saw me it was already 11:45 or so. (yep, nearly an hour and a half in the waiting room) Nicky was tired, but still hanging in there and walking up to everyone in the waiting room to say "HI!"

I had my annual exam, and found out I can't start TTC until I see my real OB/GYN in a month. Lovely. Aw well, I guess we won't get PG this cycle. (This turns out to be a good thing after my next appointment.) I go to pay and find out that they think my insurance will pay for this visit 100%. Well cool! Hopefully that's true, otherwise I'll get a bill. But still, not having to shell out the 25$ yesterday is very helpful.

So we leave there about 12:30 and my next appointment is only a parking lot away and is at 1:00. By this time we're hungry, and Nicky is exhausted (usually naps from about 11-1 every day) so we drive to the Wendy's that is really close and run through the drive through for some cheap food. I eat in the car and then head in to my next appointment about 5 minutes early. I left Tom and Nicky in the car to try to have lunch.

I'm knitting in the waiting room when I hear a lady say "Oh he's so cute!" and realize Tom and Nicky have come in. Now this waiting room has nothing even resembling a toy in it. Well, maybe the wooden sculpture of a hippo looks like a toy to Nicky, but it's probably 500$ so I wouldn't let him touch it. We did a lot of spinning and playing with Daddy's keys in there. Tom took him outside in between rain showers and we just hoped the appointment would be quick.

I finally went back around 2:00. (Yep, an hour in the waiting room.) I waited in an exam room, then met with the doctor in his office, then back in for the exam, then talk to the doctor. Tom kept a hold on Nicky all during this. He played with my comb, his stuffed puppy, the keys, my water bottle, anything we could think of to keep him happy. He wanted to get down and play, but this place was not even close to baby-proof with the TWO biohazard containers right in the corner. Lovely. Tom took him out to walk in the hall for a little bit while I talked to the doctor after the exam. When I went out to do the whole paperwork, copay, schedule my surgery thing (yeah, surgery, fun stuff) Tom took Nicky to the car.

It was 3:00. Three PM people! My kid has usually gone down for his SECOND nap by this time! He hadn't eaten lunch, had a weird breakfast, three shots, and no nap. If I had the $ and energy I'd have bought him some amazing toy as a reward. But instead we let him sleep in the car for about 20 minutes or so while I filled out paperwork. I think he enjoyed that more.

After coming out of the office, Tom drove up to the door to pick me up. We went to the store where Tom picked up some groceries for dinner and I knit while Nicky slept. Then we went to the bank. Nicky woke up by then so we all went inside to change our address (finally- about a year after moving!) and order new checks. Then we finally got home around 4:30pm.

I took Nicky to his room, changed him, put on his music, held him through the first song and then put him right down. He laid down on his tummy and I covered him up and left the room. Not a peep. Poor kid was so tired! Tom and I took a nap too. Chasing Nicky around and keeping him entertained was exhausting, and knitting, knitting was exhausting too. And the doctor stuff wasn't much fun either.

Nicky woke up about an hour later and we started getting ready for dinner. Amazing though. He still went to bed on time (even a little early) and slept all night. What a wonderful little boy! I just had to record this amazing day for posterity. We're so lucky!

-----------------so I know what you're really wondering about is... what were you knitting? I know! I had to take a picture to show you because I knew that is exactly what you'd be thinking!

Ok, Next month we're hoping to go to North GA to visit my family up there. It's cold, and we, being Floridians, have nothing other than jeans and a few long sleeved shirts for winter. So being the good mommy that I am (read poor) I decided to knit Nicky a hat and scarf! The hat is a "little critter hat" and the scarf is a "wiggly worm scarf" (although I declare it to be a snake!) and they're so cute. Here's Nicky doing some modeling last night.

Photos and Movies

Who am I?

Angela is the regular blogger on here. She's been married to Tom for 21 years and is the lucky mommy of Nicholas, her 10 year old son, and twin 6 year old girls, Lilianna and Gabriella. She is a former teacher and library geek who now works providing tech support for library software. This blog is primarily designed for friends and family to help keep them up to speed on all things Angela. And yes, I am a Leo. ;)